The village of Wilbarston it situated in rural Northamptonshire around 20 miles from the county town of Northampton.

For many centuries the church of All Saints' has stood on the edge of the village overlooking the beautiful Welland Valley.

The church has seen many events over the years and still forms an active part of the village community. Until 2018 the handsome spire housed five bells, which are hung for full circle ringing in the English style.

The bells were not easy to ring with many of the parts now over 130 years old. The bell ringers therefore took the big decision to restore the bells back to their former glory, leaving a legacy for the church, the village and future generations. This was completed in July 2018, just two years after permission was gained.

How are we doing?

With the help and support of many people and organisations we have reached our target.

Wilbarston bells will be restored!

A big thank you to everyone who has helped us reach this incredible amount!

£34,545 (108% of target) - 31/12/2017

Visit to Loughborough to see new bell cast

With the funds faised, the dream started to become a realality. On Februray 1st 2018 a large group took a trip to see the new bell cast at John Taylor & Co. Loughborough.

After some discussion and though the new bell will carry the inscription:

"I ring out across the valley"

This we feel reflects what this bell and all ther others will do over the many years to come.

The picture shows the bell mould buried in a pit. The red glow on the top is the cooling bell metal that has just been poured.

The bell is left to cool for a number of days before it dug up and the bell removed from the mold.

The Bells come out

The bells were removed the week following Easter.

It took just over 3 days before they were all on the church floor and ready for their trip to Loughborough.

The image shows the heaviest bell (the Tenor) just after it has been lowered from the tower.

The work was carried out with the bell hangers from Taylors, plus a number of local helpers.

Thanks must go to eveyone who helped, including having a sleep over in the church while the bells were on the floor, just to ensure they were not stolen!

The bells come back

Following being away for six weeks, the bells arrived back at the end of May with all new shiny fittings. Many hours work lay ahead to put them back in to place before we were able to see what they were like.

Initally, the bells were lined up along the church for people to come and see them and allow a short blessing service to take place before they were returned to the tower.

It took four weeks to install all the new frame work, put all the bells back in their place and replace all the other work components with new.

Finally, we were able to ring our new bells for the first time on June 19th 2018

Wow - what difference! The effort needed to ring the bells is only a fraction of what it was before making the bells easy to ring for everyone, espically younger ringers.

Many thanks for the support!

The Wilbarston Ringers would like to thanks the following people and organisations for their support in this project